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Elephant tremors only good for intimate 'chats'

19 June 2004

By Jenny Hogan

THE idea that the deep, rumbling sounds used by elephants to “talk” to each other can also travel long distances through the ground has bitten the dust. A team of leading researchers had suggested that other elephants, presumably too far away to hear sounds, could detect these seismic signals through their feet, but now the same team has shown that the vibrations don’t travel nearly far enough.

It is clear from the way elephant herds behave that they can communicate over long distances. When grazing on the African savannah, for example, groups travel along parallel paths a …